Xander the Vampire Slayer
by WorldWarIV
Summary: In every generation, there is a Chosen One. He alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. He is the Slayer.
1. Chapter 1

An ingredient was missing. Ethan Rayne was furious. Without it, he would not be able to complete the spell. He was walking fast around the streets of Sunnydale, looking for the magic shop he knew was somewhere nearby.

He was as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning. The warlock could not believe his luck when he found that old spell book in a yard sale. Every other incantation in it was classic, basic stuff. But stuck between the pages, Ethan found a piece of paper folded in half. On it, the runes of a spell thought to be only a legend.

But somewhere between London and California, the sorcerer lost one crucial component: the scale of a Komodo dragon. Since he doubted he could buy one at the local pet store, his only hope was the magic shop.

As Ethan was about to turn around, believing he went past the street he was looking for, he heard the shout of a light and bubbly voice he only knew too well. A sarcastic laugh soon followed, and although he knew he should not, he still went ahead and peeked for a bit.

Discussing in front of the Bronze, there they were: his old friend Rupert Giles, and the Slayer herself. The girl was dressed to party, and seemed to beg her Watcher for something. A night off, no doubt. Sighing heavily, Ethan's rival nodded at the girl, who then smiled happily before entering the Bronze without even looking back at her disgruntled Watcher.

Ethan stayed a bit longer to spy on his nemesis. He soon had to retreat in the shadows though, since Giles was turning his head in his direction, like he had sensed his presence. When he felt it was safe, Ethan peeked his head again, watching every step Giles took towards his car, while talking to himself.

"Yes, enjoy it while it lasts Rupert. Soon, there will be no more Slayer to watch."


	2. Chapter 2

_Out patrolling again_, Buffy thought. She was exhausted. It was the fifth night in a row she patrolled, except for that one night off Giles let her have yesterday. And the one on Monday. Maybe she wasn't exhausted after all, just really, really bored. Vamps were quiet. No Big Bad had made Sunnydale their home in a long time. The young girl craved a challenge, a monster, anything really that could get the old blood boiling.

Of course, just seeing Angel could do all that for her. She stopped by his crypt earlier, but he wasn't there. At first, Buffy thought that something might have happened to her lover, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary in the silent, deserted crypt. She quickly left, having forgot how creepy that place could be when Angel was not there.

A bit disappointed, Buffy resumed her patrol. She was seriously thinking about going home to do her homework when something weird happened. A huge purple storm abruptly gathered over Sunnydale, soon spitting thunder and bolts of lightning all over the city.

_What the hell?_ wondered Buffy as the storm was getting increasingly more violent. Ferocious gusts of wind were shaking the trees so hard that some of them fell and almost squashed Buffy. The lightning was growing ever more threatening, seeming to be getting closer and closer to the Slayer. Buffy looked for shelter, and Angel's crypt was her best shot at getting out of the storm. But before she could get there, one of those bolts struck Buffy right in the heart, rendering her unconscious for a good half-hour. When she woke up, the storm had receded, kind of staying in the background of the sky if that made sense, not quite there but not quite gone. Buffy looked at her chest, expecting to find a black smoldering hole, but everything was fine, her shirt still as white as it was when she put it on.

_Was that a dream?_ she wondered. _But the storm… I can still kind of see it. Oh well. I'm fine anyway so I'll tell Giles about it later, maybe he will have an idea of what happened._

Still shaken by what had just happened to her, Buffy didn't hear the growling at first. When she realized that she was being followed, the Slayer was overjoyed. _Finally, some real action!_ she thought, deliberately slowing her pace.

"You know, if you want to attack me you should do it now, Mom is very strict about my curfew."

Stepping out of the shadows, the vampire growled and proceeded to attack. Waiting for him with a smile on her face, Buffy threw a kick in the stomach of the creature who stopped dead in its tracks… puzzled.

"That's it? What did you think was going to happen, little girl? Was I supposed to fly off in the décor or something?

"Well, that's kind of what happens usually…" Buffy answered, before being interrupted by a new attack from her adversary.

Panicking, she started running toward the street, but the vampire was a lot faster than she was. Grabbing her by the shoulder, he threw the Slayer violently onto the ground. Buffy, purely on instincts, grabbed the stake hidden in the pocket of her leather coat as the vampire was jumping on his helpless prey. The stake went through his chest and pierced his heart, reducing him to dust quickly scattered by the wind.

Buffy stayed on the ground a full minute before she regained her senses.

"Something is very, very wrong. Giles. Must find Giles," said Buffy before rushing off to look for her Watcher.


	3. Chapter 3

Oz slowly opened his eyes. A faint ray of light was filtering through the drapes and warmed up his cheek.

_God, I feel awful,_ thought the young man, slowly climbing out of bed and heading to the bathroom. He studied his face carefully in the mirror, noting for the first time all the cracks and holes in his skin. Rubbing it for a minute, he could not believe how dry it was. Without a second thought, Oz grabbed his mom's skin lotion, and applied it to his hands and face.

Then, for the next half hour, he carefully combed his hair, wondering if the blond look was his best, or if he should go back to brown, red, black or blue. He spent another hour choosing what he would wear to school, his black pants with his blue shirt, or maybe his gray one with the funny yellow dogs? The process became even longer when he thought about Willow. Would her outfit match his own? What could she wear that would make him stand out even more in the crowd?

He was about to call her to ask what she would wear, when he realized that he was already very late for school.

Ten minutes later, after finally choosing the coolest-looking way to carry his guitar, he climbed into his van, never worrying for a second about what had just transpired. For the first time since his transformation, he did not feel the presence of the wolf that he knew was hiding in the dark corners of his heart. All he could feel was an intense, almost oppressive urge to go shopping.

To go shopping for shoes.


	4. Chapter 4

"Have you seen Oz?" inquired the red-headed computer geek turned witch Willow to her best friend Xander.

"Can't say that I have. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Buffy either."

"It's weird. It's not like them to miss first period."

"Actually, it's very much like them. Don't worry, I'm sure they're alright. Maybe they just discovered that they were madly in love, and escaped this morning to Mexico together," teased Xander, a playful smile on his face. "What, not funny?" he asked, gaging Willow's reaction. "Okay then, not funny."

"What's wrong?" asked Willow, hearing Xander gruntling.

"Nothing, my stupid locker is stuck again." Annoyed, Xander pulled hard on the door, ripping the lock apart.

"Can you believe that? My locker is so cheap that it's falling apart in my hands. Right after school, I'll go see Principal Snyder and ask for a new one."

"Maybe you shouldn't, he'll probably ask you to pay for the damages."

"Smart girl. That's why I like you. What should I do then? I know! I'll fix it myself. How hard can it be?"

"Let's go, we're going to be late for class" urged Willow, always worried about breaking the rules.

"Willow, I know how you feel about punctuality, but we still have twenty minutes. Besides, I promised Cordy I would let her borrow my English notes. Why would she want to borrow my notes, you might ask? I suspect she was brainwashed, and forgot who her boyfriend was. But who I am to deny her dream to fail English?"

The two friends parted ways, and Xander started eagerly looking for Cordelia. Finding out which clothes she was wearing each morning was one of the best parts of his day. That girl always had a knack for choosing the sexiest outfits any man could dream of.

That is why Xander paused, wondering if the end of the word was near, when he saw Cordelia walking up to him. She was wearing a gray pant suit, glasses, light make-up and her hair was in a ponytail.

"Hey honey… is everything alright?" risked Xander, who expected a quick burst of anger anytime now.

"Yes, of course. Why?"

"Well, don't get me wrong, you're as hot as ever. It's just that… well… your clothes."

"What about them? Oh, I see what you mean," said Cordelia, bursting into laughter. "I didn't really want to dress up today. I borrowed this from my mom. Hope it's okay. By the way, Giles wanted to see us before we go to class. You coming?"

"I've lived on the Hellmouth for three years and that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen." muttered a puzzled Xander.


	5. Chapter 5

The whole gang was sitting in the library, waiting for Giles to announce what kind of terrible danger they were in this time. He stood in front of them, very gloomy in all-black clothes, slowly opening his mouth:

"I don't know."

"What? How is that even possible? You are, like, our go-to guy when we need answers. Buffy has no powers. We need answers!" said Willow in a panicked tone.

"Well, I have none," replied Giles. "I have not been feeling too well myself lately. I cannot drink or eat anything, and I have been feeling very lonely and misunderstood."

"You're all worrying too much about this. I'm sure it's nothing," interjected Oz, who looked supremely disinterested in everything that was happening.

"How can you say that? And what happened to your eyebrows?"

"Do you like them?"

"Well, they are kind of gir…"

Willow was interrupted by an ecstatic Angel who popped through the doors of the library wearing the silly smile of a silly lover.

"Buffy! Buffy! I walked here! I walked here!"

"Isn't it how you usually go from one place to another?" asked Xander. "Or did you never tell us you could fly? Wait, can vampires fly now?

"You don't understand. I used the streets. I walked here in broad daylight!"

The room fell silent for a moment. Everyone was looking at Angel's radiant face. He looked transfigured. But how could he walk in the middle of the day without bursting into flames? Did he find a spell to protect himself? Or was he human again?

"Okay something is very wrong. And I don't just mean seeing Angel smile. Giles, what kind of power would it take to turn a vampire into a human? Is it even possible?"

"Well…"

"Theoretically, it's not," interrupted Cordelia. "You can change a human into a vampire, but you cannot do the opposite. The best you can do is give a vampire his soul back. For something like that to happen, you would need some seriously overpowered magic, I mean djinn-level magic, at the very least." She paused. "Wait, how do I know that?"

"I think I understand what is going on." Buffy went to Giles' office and brought back a giant cross that she shoved in his face.

"Buffy, what are you doing?" asked Giles while taking a step back.

"Touch the cross."

"What? Why would I do such a thing?"

"Just touch it Giles."

Slowly, Giles reached for the holy symbol. As soon as his finger grazed it, he recoiled in pain. Smoke came out of his hand and the skin was slightly burned where the cross just was. Realizing what that meant, everyone took a step back.

"You didn't go back home last night, did you?"

"No, I stayed here, doing some research after you told me about the storm and the lightning strike. I did feel especially unfocused after a while, but I cannot be… I was never bitten. And I don't feel especially different, except for… but I would never…"

"It's because you have a soul," explained Buffy.

"What? How could that be possible?" asked Angel, who was clearly confused by the situation.

"Yes… now that you mention it," said Cordelia, who went without hesitation to one of the bookshelves, grabbed a volume, opened it and started reading.

"Cordy honey… what are you doing?"

"Shush," answered Cordelia impatiently. "It might be some kind of transference spell," she pursued. "They are really complicated, and usually the caster swaps body with someone else, but it seems to have affected all of us."

"Maybe, but we all are still in our bodies."

"Yes, but something has been swapped, like Buffy suggested."

"You don't mean…"

"I think it's exactly what happened. We all exchanged what makes us unique or special. Giles became a vampire with a soul. Cordelia got Giles intellect. I'm pretty sure Willow is a werewolf now, but the full moon will not happen for a while so this won't be an issue. Oz has Cordelia style and Angel Xander's humanity.

"Wait, you're telling me that the only thing I have to offer is the fact that I am alive? Please kill me now." Xander paused for a second. "Wait a minute… does that mean that… that I have Buffy's powers?

"The world is doomed," simply said Giles.


	6. Chapter 6

"Don't worry Xander, it's just a test. Nothing too difficult. Two or three vampires top. I promise."

"Hey, who's worried? Not me. I'm the Chosen One! I feel like I could take out an army of vampires plus a dozen demons on the side."

"Don't be overconfident. That's how you get killed. Cordelia was very clear: nothing too dangerous."

"I think I already demonstrated what I am capable of, Buff."

"It was really impressive to see you do push-ups with Willow and Giles sitting on your back, but I still think a field test will tell us more about your capabilities."

The duo fell silent for a moment. It was awkward to just have their role reversed like that, with Xander being the hero and Buffy the sidekick. She still wasn't sure how she felt about the whole situation. She had wanted to be normal for such a long time, but she couldn't deny that huge chunk of her that was missing.

"How was it? When you discovered you had powers? What did you do?" asked Xander.

"I was angry at first. I had friends, a boyfriend, a life; I wasn't ready to have all that go away. And unlike you, I wasn't that thrilled to have superpowers. But I got used to it and made new friends. It became a lot easier after I started hanging out with you guys. What about you? Are you alright?"

"I'm honestly having the best day of my life. I'm already thinking about super-hero names. What do you think about Xan-Man? Kind of like He-Man, but with more Xander in it. I think I'm going to like being able to lift heavy things like this big bag of weapons. Can you imagine? I won't be sore for days now when I go shopping with Cordelia."

"And you don't even know about the best part yet. Imagine if…"

"Shhh… did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

She then heard a noise coming from the woods. Something big was coming, the ground was even shaking a bit. It then appeared: a gigantic demon with brown skin, an unusually long chest, horns like a mouflon and a black, rusty great axe on its shoulder. The creature approached Buffy, who just stood there, paralyzed by fear. The demon then pointed its axe towards her, and said: "I just have to kill you now, and the spell will be complete." It lifted its weapon, and the only thing Buffy could see was the giant blade that was about to cleave her in half.

The next thing she knew, she was on the ground with Xander on top of her. The axe missed them by an inch. Xander was already facing the monster when she managed to get to her feet. He was attacking the demon with a barrage of punches and kicks, getting more confident each time it took a step back.

"Xander, be careful!" warned Buffy.

But the young man wasn't listening. Out of nowhere, the demon threw a backhand that would have beheaded any normal human, but instead the rookie Slayer was sent flying a couple of feet into the air.

"Xander!"

"Wait for me Slayer, I'll first kill your abnormally powerful friend, then it will be your turn," shouted the demon.

Buffy briefly saw the face of her friend, which was now covered in blood instead of bravado as the hulking figure was slowly walking to him to finish him off. Without even thinking, Buffy rushed over to the axe the demon dropped in the grass, but it was too heavy for her to pick up. Buffy then remembered the bag of weapon they brought and rushed over it. She took a sword and ran towards the demon as it was about to smash Xander's face with its fist. Buffy plunged the sword in the back of the creature as far as she could and moved out of the way. The demon yelled in pain and turned around to face her.

"Xander, now!"

The young man did not hesitate, pulled out the sword and with one great swing chopped the demon's head clean off.

"Wow," said Xander after catching his breath, "this Slayer thing might be a lot harder than I thought."


	7. Chapter 7

"It said it had to kill me to complete the ritual. Is there a lot of rituals who would need you to kill the person you have swapped bodies with to be permanent?"

"I'm not sure…" said Cordelia, pensively.

"Cordy, tell me you have something," pleaded Xander. "That thing almost killed us. It was scary powerful. Whoever sent it must have big means. We need the real Slayer back in the driver's seat if we want to survive this."

"I have some of Giles' books in my room, maybe we could find something, narrow it down to a couple of spells or find out which demon attacked you."

They followed Cordelia upstairs. Her parents were not very pleased when they were woken up at 2 in the morning by a couple of their daughter's friends. When Cordelia said that they urgently needed her help for a school project, they were too happy that she was showing interest in school to further object.

"Nothing. There's nothing," yawned Xander after two hours of useless reading.

"Don't give up just yet. Research takes time. You can't expect results if you don't…"

"I've got it!" shouted Buffy in a triumphant voice. "Remember the weird storm we had yesterday? It wasn't natural, it was linked to the spell. Except, it wasn't a transference spell. It was…

Buffy paused.

"What?"

"It was a counter-spell. To the one that gave slayers their powers in the first place."

The room fell silent.

"Let me take a look." Cordelia read for a bit. "You are right. Normally, you should have been killed by the lightning bolt. But something went wrong. That's why the demon attacked you. Whoever botched the ritual hoped that killing you would fix his mistake."

"So what went wrong?" asked Xander, half-sleeping.

"Good question. Maybe with one of the ingredients. Half the stuff written here is crazy hard to find. And assuming our mysterious spellcaster didn't already have everything when he came to Sunnydale, only the magic shop could sell him what he needed. But it's not going to be open until tomorrow morning, so we might as well get some sleep. Go home and rest."

"You sound so much like Giles, it's crazy."

"Is it a good or a bad thing?" asked Cordelia with a smile.

"I'm not sure yet," admitted Xander.


	8. Chapter 8

Willow, Cordelia and Buffy went to the magic shop first thing in the morning. Giles stayed home since he could not walk in the sunlight, while Oz and Angel were keeping him company – and keeping an eye on him. Xander, still shaken by his first fight with a demon, was home resting.

They entered the shop. Willow was smiling wildly. She was happy to know that the witch part of her was still hers. Maybe she wasn't a powerful enough witch yet for it to transfer? It was still weird though, as she felt a sort of conflict inside her, like the magic was fighting hard to expulse the wolf. She turned to Buffy to express her joy at being here, but she felt remorse when she saw how sad her friend looked. Did she miss being the Slayer? Did she feel useless? Willow really hoped it wasn't the case; even without her powers, Buffy was still one of the strongest and most resourceful persons she knew.

"Let me talk to Hilda," warned Willow. "She can be peculiar sometimes".

The girls agreed. Even though the shop was opened, nobody stood behind the counter.

"Maybe she's in the back?" suggested Willow.

"She's not here," said a voice coming from the shadows. "That old crook ran for her life as soon as I came in."

"Ethan Rayne," muttered Buffy menacingly. "I should have known you were behind this."

"I very much doubt that. You're not as smart as you like to think you are."

Buffy pushed him against the wall, griping the warlock by the throat. Even though she had none of her normal strength, Ethan didn't even try to fight back. Maybe he didn't know about that?

"What did you do this time? And please be precise. I have a lot of stress I need to evacuate."

"I'll be glad to answer your questions if you let me go." Buffy obeyed, but stayed close. "That's better. You always have to be so violent."

"You tried to kill me."

"Wrong. I tried to kill the Slayer inside of you. Once and for all. Your death was just an unfortunate side effect of ridding the world of the Slayer line."

"And you failed. As always."

"I was so close!" yelled Rayne. "That old hag sold me the wrong ingredient."

"Did you hurt her?" asked Willow, worried.

"No. She left before I could do anything."

"Why come to us?" asked Cordelia. "Did the spell backfire a bit too much for you?"

"The demon who tried to kill you…"

"He's dead," interrupted Buffy, crossing her arms. "I've killed him."

"Yeah, I figured as much when he did not return."

"What was it anyways? I couldn't find anything about it," asked Cordelia.

"A torso demon. Very nasty and powerful race of warriors. I recruited them. They even offered to work for free. That's how eager the vampires and demons are to get rid of you, Slayer. Well, that until the spell failed and their brother was killed. Now, they just want to wipe out Sunnydale and everyone in it.

"They? As in more than one?"

"Yes… You see, torso demons always give birth to triplets, who then spend their lives together."

"So, there are two others."

"Yes, and they will come to avenge their brother. And there might be another bit of bad news…

"Get to the point, Ethan."

"Torso demons are linked in life and death. When one of them dies, its power is split up between its two brothers. They are now more powerful than they were before. And if you kill a second one…

"The third one becomes crazy strong."

"Precisely. Hope you are ready Slayer, because they are also excellent trackers and they will probably be here very soon."

Buffy froze for a moment. She had no powers, and Xander and Giles were not here. If the demons came in right now, there was not much they could do. Still, they had to try.

"Is there a way to cancel the spell?" asked Buffy.

"Yes, in theory. Since it should have been completed with your death and you are alive, it still can be interrupted. But we must be very careful in doing so, or the consequences could be dire."

"Great. Willow, you and Ethan work on that. Cordelia, get in touch with Giles and Xander. Call them first, and if they don't answer, go get them as quickly as you can. I'll stay here and gather some weapons. Alright? Get to work."


	9. Chapter 9

Two hulking demons ripped the door from its handles. Buffy just stood there, unimpressed, sword in hand. The demons looked unsure for a second, but they quickly set their doubts aside, wanting to be the ones to end the Slayer curse once and for all. When they approached, Buffy stood her ground. Yes, she had none of her powers, and yes, the sword felt a lot heavier in her hand, but she still had been trained by Giles, and she would stop at nothing to protect her friends.

"You see the blood on this blade?" taunted Buffy. "It's your brother's. I hope you are better fighters than he was."

The two demons lunged at her, blinded by anger. They tossed aside the table behind which Buffy was hiding like it weighted nothing. They furiously swung their battle axe at her, but Buffy dared not parry any of their strikes. She knew it would rip her arm right off. Instead, she ran and dodged and hided, infuriating the pair of monsters even more. Would anything of the store be left after that fight? Buffy very much doubted it.

"Any progress?" she shouted to Will and Ethan Rayne.

No one answered her. They were probably busy cancelling the spell. _Good_, she thought. _Now I just hope to live long enough to become the Slayer again_.

But Buffy was exhausted. A punch that she was trying to roll away from clipped her in the shoulder, sending waves of pain all through her body. Thinking they had the advantage; the demons went for the kill when a voice coming from behind stopped them cold.

"You know, I'd rather get coffee and doughnuts than swinging a sword around, but for you two uglies I'll make an exception."

Xander lifted the broadsword he picked up high above his head and swung it as hard as he could at the closest demon. "I have grossly underestimated the strength of a Slayer," whispered Xander, standing over the pile of goo that used to be a giant horned demon. The last demon, briefly taken aback by this brutal attack, was quick to retaliate, striking Xander hard with the pommel of his weapon. Xander fell brutally on the floor, a big bump already forming on his head. Still fearing the Slayer more than any other potential assailant, the demon turned to Buffy, striking at the defenseless Slayer with his blade in a giant growl of triumph as the sound of thunder was erupting all around the magic shop.

Buffy parried the strike.

Rising up to her feet, she shouted with joy: "Hey, look at this! I'm back!"

Wasting no time, Buffy slashed the demon chest, then followed with a shoulderbutt that threw the monster off-balance. Wanting to show off a little, she swung her sword around with grace, drawing circles in the air before plunging the blade into the heart of the final demon.

When it was done, Buffy moved a strand of hair that was glued to her cheek by sweat, let out a "Eww" and then turned to Xander, a big smile on her face. It quickly faded when she saw that her friend was jumping around in pain.

"Xander? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. It's just that I dropped the broadsword on my toes when you got your powers back."

Buffy laughed gently, happy that everything was back in order. Willow soon joined them, happy herself that her magic had worked.

"Where is Ethan?" asked Buffy after hugging her friend.

Willow turned around, looking for the warlock. "He was right behind me," she said shamefully.

"It's okay Willow. We will get that weasel sooner or later. Why don't we go to Giles to tell him the good news and see if he is still broody and depressed?"

"As long as there's no swords," replied Xander jokingly.


	10. Chapter 10

Xander was late for class, as always. He often felt bad about it, but not that morning. He was too busy thinking about the fact that, for a minute, he had been the Chosen One.

"Hey!" said Buffy, just as late as he was. "How are you adjusting to normal life?"

"Pretty good, I'd say. I'm back to being a klutz in gym class, but besides that I'm pretty happy.

"Yeah? No regrets? I know you always wanted to be a super-hero."

Xander took a moment before he answered.

"Yeah, I did. But you know what? I don't mind being a sidekick. I know it's important too. Buffy, I could never do what you do. Even without your powers, you stood up to those demons, because you wanted to protect your friends. That's what makes you the Slayer. And I think that why you were chosen. I'm happy I have spent a couple of days in your shoes. Because it makes me appreciate even more what you do for all of us."

"Nice speech, Mr. Harris."

"Why, thank you my fair lady. Ready to go?"

On her way to class, Buffy felt a warmth inside her when she thought about what her friend had said. Maybe, in a way, she had always been the Slayer, even before she was called, and that thought made her love who she was just a little more.


End file.
